The Blanco Telescope and its instruments: a status report

Timothy M. C. Abbott; Alistair R. Walker; Sean D. Points; David J. James; Brooke Gregory; Roberto Tighe; Nicole David; Esteban Parkes; Rolando Cantarutti; Michael Warner; Omar Estay; Manuel Martínez; Marco Bonati; Edison Bustos; Andrés Montané; Freddy Muñoz; Patricio Schurter

doi:10.1117/12.2232723

27 July 2016 The Blanco Telescope and its instruments: a status report

Timothy M. C. Abbott, Alistair R. Walker, Sean D. Points, David J. James, Brooke Gregory, Roberto Tighe, Nicole David, Esteban Parkes, Rolando Cantarutti, Michael Warner, Omar Estay, Manuel Martínez, Marco Bonati, Edison Bustos, Andrés Montané, Freddy Muñoz , Patricio Schurter

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9906, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VI; 99064D (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2232723
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2016, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Abstract

In recent years the V. M. Blanco 4-m telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) has been renovated for use as a platform for a completely new suite of instruments: DECam, a 520-megapixel optical imager, COSMOS, a multi-object optical imaging spectrograph, and ARCoIRIS, a near-infrared imaging spectrograph. This has had considerable impact, both internally to CTIO and for its wider community of observers. In this paper, we report on the performance of the renovated facility, ongoing improvements, lessons learned during the deployment of the new instruments, how practical operations have adapted to them, unexpected phenomena and subsequent responses. We conclude by discussing the role for the Blanco telescope in the era of LSST and the new generation of extremely large telescopes.

Citation Download Citation

Timothy M. C. Abbott, Alistair R. Walker, Sean D. Points, David J. James, Brooke Gregory, Roberto Tighe, Nicole David, Esteban Parkes, Rolando Cantarutti, Michael Warner, Omar Estay, Manuel Martínez, Marco Bonati, Edison Bustos, Andrés Montané, Freddy Muñoz , and Patricio Schurter "The Blanco Telescope and its instruments: a status report", Proc. SPIE 9906, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VI, 99064D (27 July 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2232723

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